What I've Finished

So I finished reading Anthology of an American Girl a few days ago and I have to say I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. Part of it may be that I didn't identify with Eveline (the heroine of the novel) as much as I hoped I would. She had way more freedom than I had as a teenager and as a result she was able to drift around, spending entire days at a time away from home without any consequences from her parents (who are divorced). She was also able to drink alcohol in bars, where she was never questioned about her age. In addition, She was very self-centered, imagining every man or boy she ever encountered to be in love , or at least hopelessly obsessed, with her. She broke up with her troubled and drug addicted boyfriend, only to become involved with a guest drama teacher who came to her school to help direct a play for which she (an artist) worked on creating the scenery. Said drama teacher was also a boxer, which held no interest for me. I hate boxing and a part (admittedly very small) dealt with it. Yuck. Later she becomes involved with a rich control freak. Double yuck.

I don't want to give anything away but needless to say it goes on for 600 pages. I do think Hilary Thayer Hamann is a good writer. She does have a way with language, but I think the book could have been shorter, and maybe I would have liked it more if I could have become emotionally invested with the main character. I didn't really like her. Of course, I don't feel that disliking a character is a reason not to like a book. I've read plenty of books where I hate the main character and adore the book. The point is I basically felt nothing for the main character because she was kind of bland. She came across as very weak and I didn't have any sympathy for her. I really felt nothing for her. One of the blurbs on the back of the book basically compared this book with The Catcher in the Rye but I just don't see it. Eveline is no Holden Caufield, that's for sure.

Originally I gave the book 4 stars on GR but after mulling it over for a few days I've decided the book is more like a 3 star book for me. Maybe my expectations were too high and maybe if I reread it later I'll feel differently but for now the book just didn't resonate with me.

In any case, I've just started reading Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby. I'm in the middle of completing the adult summer reading club for our local library along with David. I plotted out the books I wanted to read in advance and although Juliet, Naked looks like it's not going to be more than a 3 star read for me, I'm not going to start putting books down and restarting new ones. I've completed two so far, and so has David, and I'm not about to let him beat me. Shallow and immature? Probably, but it's all in good fun and at least some of my summer reading should be all about fun.

Once I'm done with the "competition" I plan on reading the books I really want to, which are much more lengthy and heavier than the ones I'm reading now. These include Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (which I'll be reading as part of a group I belong to on Goodreads), Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami(for a reading group I belong to on Facebook. This will actually be a reread but it is a multi-layered kind of book that needs to be read at least twice), and finally, I'll be tackling The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, which most of my Goodreads friends tell me is one of the best books they've read.

Jake and the Beanstalk

Last year David and I decided that we wanted to grow more than just flowers and tomatoes in our garden so we planted beans and bell peppers. They grew beautifully so we did it again this year. Jacob wanted to plant some beans of his own and here they are. He's so proud of how fast they grew and he can't wait to pick them and finally eat them. Jacob loves science and in school they had done some experiments with bean sprouts so he was very excited to try growing his own purple beans.

What I've read and what I'm Reading

Last night I finished reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman. This was the third book I've read of his and I really enjoyed it. He has such a great imagination. Stardust is about Tristran Thorn, a teenager who's in love with a girl named Victoria Forester. One night, as they are talking, a star falls from the sky and Victoria tells Tristran that he can have anything he wants from her (a kiss or marriage) if he can manage to capture that very star for her. So Tristran sets out on a quest to find the star and he ends up in a magical land called Fairie. There he encounters ghosts and witches and other magical characters, and of course they are numerous conflicts for him to overcome.

Stardust was the perfect book to read along with another book I'm currently reading: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Safran Foer is the author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close(I read this last year and gave it five stars) and Everything is Illuminated, which is on my TBR list. As far as I know, Eating Animals is his first non-fiction work. In it he describes, in great detail, the evils of factory farming. He doesn't gloss over anything; he's very explicit about exactly how cruelly animals are treated and ultimately slaughtered. I knew most of the facts he points out but I was shocked to find out what happens to male chickens that are not used for meat. I would have to say that if I hadn't become a vegetarian two years ago I'd become one now, and I'm only on page 73. The book is so intense and upsetting that I can't read it for more than 15 or 20 minutes at a time and that's why it helps to read something lighter and less depressing at the same time.

This morning I started reading a book called Anthropology of An American Girl by Hillary Thayer Hamann. The book was originally self-published in 2003 and supposedly had a "cult following." It was recently revised and re-edited and now has been published by Random House. It's a coming of age novel that takes place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The heroine of the novel is only two or three years older than me and is supposedly filled with cultural references, so for me it will be like taking a trip back in time to when I was a teenager. I wonder if I will identify with her. I've only read the first 28 pages but so far it seems like I'll like it.

Last Day of School

Today is Jacob's last day of third grade. Since I no longer work outside the home I sort of feel like I'm about to start my summer vacation, too. I get to say goodbye to nightly homework struggles, frantic backpack packing, brown bag lunch making, bedtime battles and having to practically blast a grumpy, sleepy nine year old out of bed. The long, lazy days of summer are about to begin for us: sleeping as long as we like, hot afternoons at the local pool, dinners on the patio and lots of movies at night. We can eat lunch when we want and read what we want.

Despite all the fun, it's a little sad too. Jacob is over halfway through with elementary school. In fourth grade the students start getting letter grades. There won't be anymore stars and smiley faces next to the "percentages" on Jacob's papers, only big red letters. Fourth grade seems so much more serious than third. Jacob will turn 10 in the middle of the school year and I'll have two kids with double digit ages. There are only two more years until Jacob will enter the big bad world of Middle School. At that point crayons (remember how much fun it was to get a brand new 64 pack of Crayola crayons?) will be replaced with ball point pens on the school supply list and I'll be buying shoes and clothes for a preteen. Somehow I don't think getting a middle schooler ready for "back to school" will be as much fun as it is getting an elementary schooler ready.

But I'm not going to let myself get hung up on all that now. Summer's here! It's time to get out the sunscreen, the sidewalk chalk, and all the fun books we've been saving to read. It's time to make plans for museum visits and to think about what to do on rainy days and those days when I hear the dreaded words, "Mom, I'm bored." It's time to relax and have fun.

All About Me

I'm Beth, a SAHM with a hard working hubby (David), two kids (Aaron who's 21 and Jacob, age 9), a skittish cat whose name is Schmutz (a long story) and a high strung dog named Samantha. Samantha's a Shep-Chow mix who came from a shelter--enough said!

I've been told a couple of times by a couple of people that I should start a blog. I've been thinking about it for a couple of years when Aaron first suggested it but I've never really given it any serious thought until a few days ago, when my friend Fiona started one. We were chatting on Facebook Monday night when she told me that I should just go ahead and do it. I've never been one to resist peer pressure so here I am.

The first thing you should know about me is that I'm absolutely obsessed with reading. I can't even pinpoint when it happened. My mom keeps telling me that I hated it when I was young and that I, in fact, pretty much sucked at it but I find that hard to believe. None of that matters anyway because now I can't get enough of books. I've been keeping journals of the books I've read since 1998 and in January I decided to create a yearly spreadsheets for all the books I read (yes, I'm a dork). My summer project this year is going to be to completely reorganize my books (they're all over the house: on shelves, in boxes and in piles, in the living room, the dining room, our bedroom and the basement) and inventory them (OK, I'm a BIG dork). My favorite website is Goodreads, I belong to a book group on Facebook, I love going to bookstores(both new and used) and library sales. Since my 9 year old loves reading we end up going to our local library at least once a week, too.

Just so you know, I don't (as much as I'd sometimes like to) just sit around the house reading all day. I also love to cook and bake. If I see a new recipe that looks good I just HAVE to try it. Off and on I also knit and cross stitch (of course I make bookmarks). I'm also crazy about working out. David and I became strict vegetarians over two years ago so healthy eating and daily exercise is as necessary as breathing to us.

So that's who I am and what this blog will be about. I have a lot to learn about blogging and hope that eventually I'll be able to add pictures and other interesting elements. I'm sure I'll be consulting Fiona a lot. Her blog already looks good!